Under the mentorship of renowned international experts, the Festival University participants will work out strategies and approaches - also as part of an mock international environmental court - in an effort to experience the complexity of one of mankind’s greatest challenges.

Initially launched during the summer of 2021, the Festival University program is a visionary joint project between the JKU and Ars Electronica. What started out as a trial program ended up having a lasting effect. This year’s Festival University program has not only doubled in size (200 participants instead of 100) and duration (four weeks instead of two), but also in demand, which was even greater than last year. JKU Rector Meinhard Lukas pointed out: "Over 800 school students and university students from around the world applied. The selected 200 participants are young people from over 70 countries and from all continents, involved in various disciplines ranging from cultural studies, social sciences, and law to engineering, technology, and medicine. Since the Festival University is culturally and professionally diverse, it serves as a prototype for a 'university of the 21st century' where we don’t just talk about an international profile and diversity, but practice these values as well."

Ars Electronica CEO Gerfried Stocker added: "This year’s theme for the 2022 Ars Electronica Festival is 'Welcome to Planet B' and what could be more fitting than to extend that theme to the second annual Festival University program? The program gives 200 young people from virtually every corner of the world a unique opportunity to interact with some of today’s most creative media artists, renowned researchers, innovative creators, and dedicated activists of our time, not only learning from them but also voicing their hopes, aspirations, and concerns when it comes to our future together. Pairing the Ars Electronica Festival with the Festival University program will create just the kind of uniquely international, interdisciplinary, intercultural, creative and visible mix we need in order to create a vision and strategies for the future for not just a few of us, but for all of us."

Rector Meinhard Lukas also stressed just how important the Festival University is for Linz and thanked the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science & Research for providing the required funding in the amount of € 1.6 million: "The tremendous global interest in the Festival University program reflects just how attractive our university is – a university which, together with the Johannes Kepler University Linz and the new Institute of Digital Sciences Austria, will soon be home to two universities. It also confirms the potential of collaboration between science and art. I would also like to thank the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science & Research for making this unique summer university program possible in Linz, thereby drawing attention to this unique city as a location of higher education, culture, and industry."

Martin Polaschek, Austrian Minister of Education, Science & Research, remarked: "School students and university students from over 70 countries will be actively taking part in the Festival University program organized by the JKU Linz and Ars Electronica. The figures once again speak for the program’s success in Linz as a location of higher education. What's more, this year’s Festival University theme is more current and relevant than ever before. Participants in this year’s Festival University program will come together to build bridges and respond to complex questions in regard to global responsibility toward our planet and for the following generations. We are delighted that there is a strong interest in this summer program and that young people will focus on important questions facing our planet, including just how our world can remain habitable for future generations."

A Program Designed to Build Bridges

This year's program will focus on the Ars Electronica Festival theme "Welcome to Planet B! A Different Life is Possible. But How?". Participants not only focus on climate change and its impact, but will also address just how we - as a global community - can respond to the challenges. How can we co-exist in a way that will keep our planet habitable for future generations? JKU Rector Meinhard Lukas stated further: "In the end, society’s evolution toward 'Planet B' can only succeed through cooperation and dialogue because climate change knows no borders. The Festival University program reflects this idea, inviting participants to use their broad cultural and professional diversity to build bridges between people, countries, and disciplines."

An International Mock Environmental Court

The program will include an international mock environmental court. Participants will be divided into seven groups to simulate an international court aimed at protecting the environment and conducting negotiations based on three illustrative issues (the water supply, energy, and migration). As a result, during the mock proceedings, the participants address real-world political issues, such as overexploiting raw materials, the EU’s taxonomy regulation, and climate migration, thereby learning more in-depth about the complexities and multi-layered nature of climate change as a global problem as well as about how important communication and compromise are when it comes to finding solutions. The emphasis is more about taking on different perspectives in a dialogue process, conducting strong research, and arguing solutions in a substantiated (scientific and scholarly) way than the legal aspects. University Professor Mathis Fister (Institute of Administrative Law and Administration, JKU) will supervise the mock court.

Visitors can experience the mock court live during the Ars Electronica Festival (September 9-11) in the library quad in front of the Learning Center at the JKU. It will also be streamed live online.

An International Faculty

Over the next four weeks, students in the Festival University program will be under the guidance, support, and mentorship of an international faculty consisting of (JKU) faculty members as well as experts in art, culture, journalism, business, and civil society. The program will include contributions by Franz Fischler (former Austrian Federal Minister and EU Commissioner for Agriculture), Ernst Ulrich von Weizäcker (German environmental scientist, politician, former member of the German Bundestag), Karen Palmer (artist and storyteller), university professor Ebrahim Afsah (University of Vienna, Law & Ethics in Islam), university professor Lana Ivanjek (TU Dresden, Didactics in Physics), Miranda Markus (head of BBC News Lab), Mike Artner (Fridays for Future), Seda Röder (internationally renowned Turkish author, entrepreneur, and accomplished pianist), Emran Feroz (Afghan journalist) as well as JKU faculty members Barbara Krumay (JKU Institute for Business Informatics) and Thomas Gegenhuber (JKU Linz Institute of Technology). As part of compelling lectures, interesting presentations, panel discussions, hands-on workshops, and excursions, participants will learn more about methodologies and technology in different disciplines and from a variety of perspectives. For the first time, the JKU Medical Campus will also serve a Festival University venue where participants can, among other things, experience "virtual anatomy" at the JKU’s unique medSPACE theater. Click here to learn more about the the international faculty.
 

The 2022 Festival University – Facts & Figures

• Dates: August 18 to September 14 (four weeks)
• Location: In and around Linz
• Participants:
  • 200 students between the ages of 16 and 25 from over 70 countries (i.e. Brazil, Costa Rica, USA, Canada, Austria, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Taiwan, Nigeria, Australia). They therefore represent six out of seven continents. Their backgrounds are diverse, ranging from cultural studies, social sciences, and law to technology, engineering, and natural sciences.
  • 29 of the 200 participants took part in last year’s Festival University program.
  • A total of over 800 school students and university students applied for one of the 200 spots in this year’s program.
• Language: English
• Program: Full-Time
• Academic Credit: Participants receive a Festival University Certificate worth 6 ECTS credits.
• Fees: The program covers the participants’ costs for travel (economy), accommodations, and on-site meals.
• Program Points:
  • In keeping with this year’s Ars Electronica Festival, the motto for the Festival University program is: “Welcome to Planet B! A Different Life is Possible. But How?“, focusing on climate change and its impact.
  • Organized workshops, podium discussions, and presentations by and with international experts, artists, scholars, and managers as they share expertise and encourage participants to reflect on pressing issues and transcend borders.
  • An international mock environmental court is at the heart of the program, open to the public as part of the Ars Electronica Festival.
  • The program includes daytrips and excursions in and around Linz (such as to the Gusen Memorial, for example).
• Funding: The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science & Research has generously provided the required funding of € 1.6 million in support of the Festival University program.

See: https://www.jku.at/en/festival-university/ to learn more.